Alice de Wolf Kellogg Tyler

Alice De Wolf Kellogg was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1862. A notable painter and art instructor, Kellogg began her art studies in 1879 at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts (which became the Art Institute of Chicago in 1882). She graduated with honors, and began teaching at the Art Institute Alice De Wolf Kellogg was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1862. A notable painter and art instructor, Kellogg began her art studies in 1879 at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts (which became the Art Institute of Chicago in 1882). She graduated with honors at the Art Institute, and in 1881 became an instructor there. While at the Art Institute, Arthur B. Davies, the renowned American painter, became a strong influence on the direction of Kellogg’s work at that time.

In the autumn of 1887, Kellogg left Chicago to continue her studies in Paris for two years. In Paris, she studied at the Académie Julian with Gustave Boulanger and at the Académie Colarassi with Gustave Courtois. She also painted with Charles C. Lasar, an American expatriate who taught students in Paris and Concarneau.

Kellogg returned to America in 1889, and resumed teaching in Chicago at the Art Institute. During those years she became actively involved with a women's art group called The Palette Club, of which she was president in 1891, 1892, and 1895. During the economic downturn of the late 1890s, the members of the club wisely chose to exhibit and offer for sale reasonably priced, smaller scaled paintings which became quite popular to collectors. Kellogg's paintings from this period are typically smaller formatted works that reveal a broader, fluid brushwork and a lighter palette than her earlier, darker and more academic styled artwork. This bolder brushstroke and lighter palette hinted at Impressionism, and while one can only speculate as to where her later, more mature work might have taken her, it is likely the results would have continued to enhance her national recognition and artistic legacy.

Kellogg exhibited at the Society of American Artists, where she became a member in the 1890s. She participated in numerous national exhibitions, including those at the 1893 Chicago World's Colombian Exposition and elsewhere. In 1894, she married Orno Tyler. She died six years later, prematurely ending a promising painting career just as she had reached her prime. Kellogg became a highly regarded teacher and painter at the Art Institute of Chicago. She died in 1900, at the age of thirty-seven.